Training Day
by A Damned Scientist
Summary: Sometime in S10, Cam takes Vala on an off-world training assessment. Stuff ensues. "And it isn't a date!" He shouted after her. "If you say so..."
1. Chapter 1

**Training Day (PG)**

This is my first SG fanfic... Actually, it's my first fully non-Farscape fanfic. OK, so it's Cam/Vala so it's a bit of a cheat. That said, when this fic came to me, it was Jack/Vala. But A. I couldn't work out how to make that work and B. I'm not sure if anyone wants to read that pairing. So Cam/Vala it is. If the muse and any readers agree, I may do more 'training day' type fics with Vala and other members of the team, including Jack.

Setting and Spoilers: Sometime in S10, Cam takes Vala on an off-world training assessment. Stuff ensues.

Warnings and stuff: No graphic violence, no graphic sex. Some non-graphic violence, smutty dialogue and angst, so PG rated. I'd describe this as shippy action/adventure.

Thanks: To Vinegardog for the beta. Can we split the difference and give Cam size 12 feet? ;-)

Disclaimer: No money or claims to ownership being made by me.

**Training Day**

**Chapter 1:**

Colonel Cameron Mitchell checked his watch for the fifth time in as many minutes, causing more than one of the security detail in the embarkation room to crack a smile. Where the heck had Vala gotten to? If she didn't get her pretty little ass in gear he was going to have to fail her even before they'd stepped through the gate for her latest assessment. Did the woman have no sense of discipline at all? If she wanted to become a fully-fledged member of the SGC then there were procedures to follow.

His mind drifted for a second, imagining what she might be like if she was a natural military type, born and bred. Probably a ball-breaker, part of him thought, before another part of his mind ran away with embellishing the whole idea and started imagining her as some officious junior military officer, maybe a pilot: bossy and full of herself. Whoops. Down boy, he told his libido. Best get a grip. She was a flake. A flake with a lot of useful skills and contacts, but a flake nonetheless.

"Walter?!" He called, shaking the image from his head and looking up to the operations room. "Does anyone know where Ms Mal Doran is or when she plans on getting….?"

"I'm right here, Colonel," Vala replied, strolling into the room and parking herself right in front of him, stationary except for the seemingly ever-present and frankly distracting to-and-fro swing of her hips. "When and where did you want me?" She continued with a broad grin and a flirty wink which caused more than one of the airmen present to struggle in suppressing a laugh.

"You got your P90….?" Cam responded, determined to ignore the suggestive undercurrent of her question, even though he could see that she did indeed have her regulation weapon, along with regulation black BDUs and far from regulation twin ponytails framing her suggestive smirk. "Got your spare magazines, your radio, your GDO and your MREs?" he continued as sternly as he could manage.

"All present and correct, SIR!" she replied with a sloppy salute and an attitude that bordered on insubordination. Behind him he could hear the welcoming sound of chevrons engaging. "I'm pretty sure I've got everything you could ever want." She pouted a kiss his way. He ignored it. "Have _you_ got the champagne, the sheepskin rug and the candles?" she asked sotto voce, but still loud enough that everyone present must surely have heard.

Cam reddened visibly. "This is a training assessment, not a date," he snapped back, determined to regain his equilibrium. Just then the final chevron locked behind them. Without another word Cam turned on his heels and began marching towards the event horizon. He could hear the rapid click-clack of Vala's heels on the ramp as she scurried after him. What sort of boots was she wearing to make that sound, he wondered to himself with a shake of his head? Surely not regulation?

Cam was forever finding her irritating: he sometimes reckoned that she must have a little book where she kept note of what wound guys up. But he'd been around the block enough times to recognize that finding her so annoying so often was partly just his subconscious way of dealing with how hot she was. Not that he needed it: she wasn't his type. He liked his women quiet, demure... boring. He didn't go for women like Vala because... well, because they scared the crap out of him, a little voice in his head whispered. Anyway, women like her? Who was he kidding? He didn't know any women quite like her. They didn't grow 'em like that out in Farmville and she sure as heck wasn't the sort you'd encounter in the Air Force. Yep, Cam found her fascinating, scary, and a host of other things he wasn't comfortable with. So, his brain just substituted 'irritating' to try to cover it all up. Not that she couldn't genuinely be darned irritating at times.

"If you say so, Colonel…" She snorted dismissively in response to his denial, catching him up as they neared the top of the ramp. "What else could it be? Just a man and a woman, heading off alone for a few hours….." She was looking downwards, at her fingernails, not at him, pouting and talking as though to herself, as though he wasn't even there. He knew it was an act, part of her semi-permanent flirting... Irritating. Not hot at all. Honest. Colonel Cameron Mitchell wrapped himself in his stiff, military persona and stepped into the event horizon. The Stargate took him, saving him from enduring the indignity of hearing the rest of her mocking monologue and from the sniggers of the ever-attentive gate room crew.

'~'

"So, is this your idea of taking a girl somewhere special?" Vala asked, casting her clearly disappointed eyes around yet another remote forest-scape which could have been mistaken for Canada by anyone who didn't know better.

"P7M-086 is the standard third-stage off-world training assessment environment for all SGC team members," Cam stated as he watched the event horizon crackle out of existence.

"Oh yeah. Marching through a smelly, bug-infested forest. If this is your idea of a good time, I bet you don't get a lot of second dates." She snarked back at him.

He turned and stared at her, slack jawed. "What?" He shook his head. "This place is not bug-infested! And it sure as hell isn't smelly!" He snapped back. She shrugged, her demeanour implying that it made not the slightest jot of difference to her whether it was truly either of those things. She started wandering off towards the edge of the small clearing in which the Stargate was set.

"And it isn't a date!" He shouted after her.

"If you say so..."

"Hey! How about you begin with a situational assessment!?" He started after her, determined to get the mission back on track.

She spun on her (non-regulation, he noted) heel to face him, cocked her head to one side and gave him a lopsided grin, all the while keeping up that infuriating hip-swing thing of hers.

"Well, Colonel, we've got a forest all to ourselves and six whole hours till anyone expects to hear from us…. We'll just have to..." No! He was not going to let her derail their training mission with any more levity or innuendo!

"Stick to a military assessment, Miss Mal Doran!" He fumed. She smirked and bit her bottom lip, eyes twinkling.

"Whatever you say... Colonel," she replied huskily, batting her eyelids at him, before turning suddenly serious. "The Stargate is secure," she began, ticking things off on her fingers. "No evidence of hostiles." She glanced around theatrically. "Or anyone at all for that matter except us and…" suddenly her face took on a more serious expression. "A bunch of Death Gliders!" She shouted, pointing up into the air behind the gate.

"What?" Cam paused for a moment, his mind thrown into turmoil by her sudden switch from playful to deadly serious. He looked up to where she was pointing, in the sky over the tree line. A trio of small black dots were growing fast, resolving into Death Gliders as he watched. "Where the heck did they come from? Dial us up!"

"Where to?" She shouted, reaching the DHD just as the first shots from the Death Gliders started to impact. The first shots were landing nowhere near Cam and Vala, but they were getting closer each time.

"Earth! Where do you think!?" He shouted back, raising his P90 and firing at the Death Gliders, even as he heard the tell-tale sounds of the first chevron locking.

The first glider passed over them, just as the fifth chevron locked, without a shot landing closer than 50 yards. Then the second glider was past them too, again without coming close to hitting them. Nothing unusual there, Cam thought smugly.

An unusually accurate shot from the third glider caused the ground to explode just behind Vala, pitching her headfirst over the DHD. As she tumbled to the ground between DHD and gate, the last chevron locked and the event horizon erupted out of the gate.

Cam followed the last glider across the clearing with a panning shot, allowing him to see that the first glider was already coming about. He dropped his P90 to hang from its lanyard, punched the iris code into his GDO and ran. He reached Vala just as she had begun to get up. She seemed stunned and disoriented, but not seriously hurt and able to move, so he grabbed her by the elbow and propelled her up the stone steps and into the Stargate.

'~'


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Cam and Vala emerged from the Stargate at a run and tumbled down the pair of stone steps into a yet another dusty clearing. A single Death Glider weapons blast followed them through the gate, impacting harmlessly over 30 yards away, and then the event horizon blinked out of existence.

"Hmm. Looks like Canada again," Vala observed dryly, picking herself up, dusting herself down and straightening her clothes and hair.

"Where the hell are we? Why isn't this the SGC?" Cam ranted, gun at the ready as he checked their new location for hostiles. There was no one else to be seen, although it looked like the sun was going down soon: there wouldn't be much to see at all here in a couple of hours.

"Hello?" Vala waved her hand around, as though in front of Cam's eyes. "I was being shot at! Did you see me flying over the DHD?"

He ignored her, tapping out something on his handheld computer. "I think we'll have to stay put, give some time for those Death Gliders to leave. Besides, it'll take me a couple of hours to calculate the address to get us home. Have to work out where we are first."

"Cam! Is this still part of the assessment?"She poked his arm with a single finger. He ignored her. "Because if it is, I have to tell you, it really sucks! I had plans for tonight."

"Will you just hush for a moment!?" Cam snapped back, frowning as he checked the DHD against his handheld computer. Vala bit back her retort and fidgeted impatiently while Cam checked what he had to check. "Anyway, what plans? I thought you were still confined to the base?" He asked, keeping his eyes down in a bad attempt to hide a grin.

"If we end up getting stuck here tonight then you'll never find out," she leaned against the other side of the DHD, framing her face in her hands, and coquettishly batted her eyelashes at him. He looked up briefly, catching her display, and then harrumphed, ostentatiously returning his full attention to the DHD and handheld computer.

"So?" Vala asked after about 20 seconds. He rolled his eyes and lowered the computer. "Are we there yet?"

"Well, I think this is a new planet."

"Genius."

"One we haven't visited before."

"Well, good for it. Let's go home…" Vala replied. Cam furrowed his brows at her. How could she be so blasé, so unadventurous? They'd found themselves a whole new planet to explore, full of... coniferous trees.

"Hell no! It's something new, we ought to check it out. Aren't you the least bit curious?"

"Is there any reason I should be?" She made a show of looking around the clearing. "Do you see any signs of pretty baubles? Boots? Handsome young men falling at my feet?"

"Yeah, I reckon there'll be all of that. Later."

"There'd better be," she sulked.

He picked up her backpack from where she'd dropped it and tossed it to her across the DHD. "C'mon, soldier. We're movin' out."

'~'

Half an hour later they rounded a bend in the hillside and saw something interesting a quarter of a mile away, down the valley.

"Hey, looks like a settlement. We should check it out." Cam stated.

"It doesn't look like a wealthy settlement. I bet they don't have a decent restaurant. Or a decent hotel." Vala moaned.

'~

"Well, that was worth the walk," Vala commented sarcastically fifteen minutes later. "Primitive. Deserted."

"Looks maybe Roman. Daniel would love it." Cam said, ignoring her remarks as best he could.

"And it's really getting dark. Let's get going..."

"Hang on a minute..." Cam stopped dead in his tracks, squinting into the gathering gloom, towards a nearby brick-built but run-down and possibly abandoned two-storey building. Vala fell silent, hefting her P90 as her gaze followed his.

It wasn't clear who grabbed who, pulling them along as they dived for cover, but a moment later they were both rolling in the dirt, coming up in a cramped, dried out brick culvert whilst maybe half a dozen small missiles kicked up the dust where they had just been standing.

Cam took three deep breaths, readying himself to stick his head above the wall and fire. He started moving, ready to follow through, but a further flurry of spears, arrows and stones drove him back down.

"Damn!" He said, hunkering down just as Vala tossed something over the wall towards those shooting at them.

"Five. Four. Three. Two. One." He watched her mouth almost silently.

An explosion rocked the culvert.

"You had a grenade!?" Cam exploded. "How'd you get a grenade? You're not supposed to have a grenade!"

"It fell in my bag."

"When?"

"Earlier!"

"How?!"

"Gravity. C'mon, stop yapping, start running!" She scrambled from the culvert and began to run away from where the missiles had come from. As she was not cut down in a hail of arrows, Cam needed no encouragement to follow her. A couple of seconds later they reached the cover of a nearby street corner and paused to look back.

It was hard to be precise in the gathering gloom, but what looked very much like a pack of large, toothsome hounds was chasing towards them from the other side of the culvert.

Cam raised his P90 and squeezed off a burst of fire towards the dogs, dropping about half of them, but now their attackers seemed to be showing themselves in person. Dozens of dirty, raggedly dressed humanoids, brandishing a staggering variety of crude weapons, bubbled forth from at least a dozen doorways and alleyways in the street they had just run from.

"Time to go!" Cam observed.

"Umm. Bit of a problem, there," Vala replied, pulling on his sleeve. Unusually for her, she sounded genuinely nervous. Cam turned his head, looking over his shoulder and down the street behind them, towards where she was indicating.

About forty humans, wearing burnished, metal armour of a vaguely Roman design and divided into two phalanxes, one on either side of the road, were trotting towards them. They looked disciplined and well drilled. Each soldier carried something which resembled a staff weapon and they were all pointed their way.

'~'


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"Quick, in here!" Vala took a firmer grip on Cam's sleeve and tugged him into a break in the wall a few yards behind them, towards the approaching soldiers. Unfortunately, as they almost immediately established, their refuge was a little more than a deep alcove that seemed to lead nowhere.

"Well, maybe it's not my best choice of escape route ever, but at least it's a little more defensible." Vala justified herself, frantically trying to find some way over or through the walls hemming them in.

Cam nodded gratefully, touching her hip to get her attention and then holding a finger to his lips to indicate she should be quiet. It was dark in the alcove, after all. "Maybe we'll get lucky?" He whispered, bracing himself to fire, but suddenly aware of Vala's leg and hip pressed against his leg and buttock.

"This is hardly the time or place," he thought he heard Vala retort breathily. However, her words were all but drowned out by the sounds of the primitives, along with their remaining hounds, and the armoured group meeting in hand to hand combat out in the main street. After maybe 30 seconds the sounds started to diminish as the soldiers pushed the other group back around the corner.

"Looks like we got away..."

"Come out with your hands raised!" A stern, male voice demanded from out in the street.

Cam and Vala exchanged glances and Vala pointed to herself with both hands, arching her eyebrows as though to ask "Who us?"

"We know you two are hiding in there. I will count to five... One..."

"I guess he does mean us," Cam shrugged. He let his P90 dangle from its strap, raised his hands and stepped forward. Like a skittery foal, Vala followed his lead.

A dozen soldiers, dressed in a manner definitely reminiscent of Roman legionnaires, stood in a broad semicircle around the entrance, staff weapons raised and aimed at them. One, with a more magnificent helmet plume than the rest, stepped forwards.

"Identify yourself!" He demanded. Cam cleared his throat and Vala slinked around him.

"My name is..." she began, her tone of voice body language flirting for all she was worth, trying to broadcast the message that she was anything but a threat.

"Most Honoured Qetesh!" the man pronounced, falling to one knee and rendering Vala momentarily speechless. "Please forgive us our impertinence. We did not know you had returned..."

"That's, umm, fine, ummm?" Vala quickly tried to change mental gears, fishing for the man's name.

"Centurion Stroknoff," he supplied, hand clasped to his breast in salute.

"Hmm, tasty," Vala smacked her lips. Cam nudged her. "Oh, right. Yes. Tell me, Stroknoff, are any other system lords currently amongst your people?"

"No, revered Goddess. Not for nearly two years now." Cam grinned. Vala risked returning him a smile.

"Good. Well, then. In that case I would like you to take us to...?" she trailed off, having no idea what might be hereabouts that she might want to go to. She strummed her fingers on her cheek, thinking it over.

"Your palace?" Stroknoff helpfully suggested.

"Yes, of course. My palace." Vala nodded assertively. "Lead on, centurion."

'~'

The settlement was small, by Earth standards, and laid out like the sort of Ancient Roman cities that Cam had seen in illustrated history books and in 1950s movies. By the time they reached the forum a crowd of curious onlookers were starting to gather around them and their escorts, despite the deepening darkness and the late hour. As they approached the colonnaded central basilica Cam could hear whispers starting to spread through the crowd.

"Qetesh, Our Beloved Raven Haired Goddess, has returned!" said a few.

"Qetesh has returned!" said others more simply in notably less friendly or happy tones.

The basilica itself was grand and ostentatious, but far from luxurious. They paused under the colonnade, with Stroknoff and three of their escorts, whilst the heavy main door was opened by more guards. Then, as they stepped inside the large chamber beyond a group of elders came forth from one of the inner chambers to greet them.

"So, is this what passes for a palace round these parts?" Cam teased Vala as they entered. "Still, it makes a change from the whole Early-Egyptian thing, I suppose," he added with a shrug. Vala ignored him.

"It is true! My Queen! You honour us with your presence!" an old, bald man simpered, rubbing his hands together and bowing repeatedly before her. "Welcome back to Gerena!" He prostrated himself. If he'd had a tail, he probably would have wagged it, Cam thought.

"Yes, yes, yes. Show me to my rooms." Vala demanded haughtily. "Arrange refreshments suitable for myself and my consort and send me the pick of my treasury for my amusement!"

She marched forward and round him, not even waiting for a response. Cam followed her, but had time to see the old man struggle back to his feet, turn and gesticulate madly at his companions, his gestures implying that they should set about fulfilling Qetesh's whims.

The old man scurried to catch up with them.

"And you are?" Cam asked him.

"Elder Termini, my Lord," he replied. "I do not believe I have had the pleasure of your acquaintance?"

Cam was about to answer, but Vala shot him a haughty look which he had trouble interpreting but which might have been taken as 'shut up.'

"This way, my queen," Elder Termini indicated once they had reached the rear of the hall. "I am sure that you will find everything to your satisfaction."

'~'


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"Impressive," Cam remarked. He was strolling around and checking out the life sized, black marble statue of Vala while he munched on an apple. Her representation in the statue was suitably goddess-like, depicting her wearing little more than jewellery and a diaphanous gown which left little to the imagination. He turned to look at Vala, who was dressed considerably more demurely in her BDUs. She was reclining on a couch checking out some trinket that one of the attendants had recently brought to the main reception room of Qetesh's chambers for her inspection. "Is this you?" He asked, pointing towards the statue with an apple-encumbered hand. She nodded without looking up.

"I hardly recognized you with your clothes on." He continued with a smirk. She looked up at that, her eyes shooting daggers at him. He suddenly remembered that she would have had no control over what Qetesh chose to do with her body and that most likely she didn't feel very happy about the whole thing.

"Sorry... so, umm, this place was all yours? Qetesh's, I mean?" He tried changing the subject a little.

"Apparently so." She confirmed with a sigh. She sat up and tossed the trinket down onto a low table.

"How many planets have you been on?" Cam asked, trying for a more sympathetic tone and walking closer. "I mean, when you were a Go'auld host?" Vala shrugged.

"I went to a lot of places when I was host to Qetesh. Most of the time I tried not to pay too close attention to what was going on." She sniffled but couldn't hide or stop a tear from forming in one eye.

"Sorry. Sometimes I forget. It must have been... horrible." He sat next to her on the couch, wondering what to do or say next. He wasn't good at being a sympathetic shoulder to cry on under the best, most normal and human of circumstances. He felt completely lost at sea now.

"You have no idea." She sighed heavily, wiped away a tear and put on a brave, smiling face. "But that's all in the past now."

"Is that why you live so much for the moment?" She scowled back at him with ill-concealed anger and he instantly regretted his badly chosen words. Damn, Cam, think before you step in with your size-twelves. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean... I mean, not in a bad way... I'm just trying to understand... Anyway, I worked out the sequence to dial home, I'll send it to your handheld, just in case," he ventured, hoping the change of subject would help him dig himself out of his conversational hole.

He never got to find out: At that moment they were interrupted by a loud knock at the door.

"Honoured Goddess...?" a voice called from outside. Cam was surprised he'd heard it so clearly. He'd have to remember that they had little privacy here.

"It's OK, I'll get it. You need to compose yourself," Cam told her, standing and marching towards the door without waiting for her answer. He was half-grateful for the interruption to his ham-fisted attempts to talk to Vala about her past.

'~'

Elder Termini put down his chicken leg, hefted a large goblet of wine in its place and leant in closer towards Vala. "We are indeed honoured and pleased that you have graced us with your presence, my beloved Goddess."

"As you should be."

"After all, it has been some years, and such tales have reached us, even here..."

"What sort of tales?" she asked, trying to sound and act as irritated by the question as Qetesh might have been.

Elder Termini blushed, and a number of the other guests seemed to shift uncomfortably. She could not tell whether their reactions were to distance themselves from their compatriot for their own safety or because Vala had not responded in a way which met their expectations.

"Just rumours. Tittle-tattle. Probably nothing."

"Tell me!" Vala demanded menacingly, setting her face in a stern expression and lowering her own wine goblet to the table. A flunky rushed in to refill it, ignored by all.

Termini looked flustered now. "Oh, nothing. Just unfounded gossip that several system lords had been killed in battles with the T'auri and Jaffa..."

"Lies! Fabrications!" Vala fumed. Termini cringed away from her, whilst those close to him shuffled away ever so slightly. "How can a God be killed!?" She lifted a piece of fruit and began to chew on it, both to cover up her smile and to provide an excuse to fall silent. She flashed a glance at Cam. He grimaced back at her.

Termini coughed nervously. He almost seemed surprised that no terrible punishment had been visited on him for incurring his Goddess's wrath.

"But, but of course, my Beloved Goddess. These were all just rumours from afar. Rest assured that none of your loyal chattels here on Gerena doubted you for a moment..."

"As it should be," Vala responded with a wag of her finger and a nod, spraying a little half-chewed apple over Elder Termini. Termini smiled and laughed nervously, making a visible effort to ignore the apple-shower, likely grateful that that was all he had to endure. "This is boring. I want to hear more about how my holdings on Gerena have been doing in my absence..."

Termini breathed a huge sigh of relief that he seemed to have survived unscathed. "Well," he lifted his goblet and quaffed deeply. "The wheat harvest these last two years..."

'~'

"That was fun... " Vala giggled, running a finger slowly down Cam's chest. "Except all the stuff about farming. Although I bet you probably enjoyed that?"

Cam had to admit, it had been quite a bit of fun at the evening feast thrown in Qetesh's honour. Vala had outrageously hammed-up the role of her former Go'auld host and the food had been considerably better than the canteen back at SGC. Now that they were back in their chambers, he had time to reflect on how their hosts had seemed increasingly perplexed at Vala's behaviour as the evening had worn on.

And Vala, of course, was giving him something new to worry about.

"How about we round off the evening?" she asked, swinging her hips and licking and chewing on the tip of finger she'd just been stroking his chest with.

"Hmm, I think we really ought to keep focussed on..." Cam began, crossing his arms over his chest, trying to shut down her flirting with his words and his accompanying body language.

"Come on Cam. What are you afraid of?" She persisted, licking her lips and arching her back a little.

"Afraid of? No, no that's not it. You're just not my type." True and not true, his libido told him. She was hot enough - she certainly pressed the right buttons as far as his body was concerned. He wanted to sit down right now, hide his embarrassment. But... she was loud, difficult, unreliable, scary in more ways than one...

"Not your type?" She pouted her disappointment. Then she flounced off a few steps, sulking, before turning back to face him. "Well, what is your type, then? No, I got it: Dumb blondes…" she accused, playing the wronged woman now.

"Not dumb..."

"No, well, maybe not… Pathetic stay-at home blondes, like that Amy Vanderthing woman at your school reunion? You really go for women like that?"

"Yes, no... I don't know, Vala. Look, apart from it being against regulations for us to, umm... which it is, I just think, y'know things are dangerous enough here. We can't afford any distractions..."

"Right, so..." Cam never got to find out what Vala was planning to say next, though, because a crash from the shadows of their chambers disturbed them.

Cam held up a hand to indicate silence. Vala nodded her agreement and pointed to indicate where she thought the sound had come from, even as she began to stalk, catlike, towards the source of the noise. Cam drew his pistol, and also began to edge towards the side of the room, taking a longer way round to cover her.

A door banged - Vala rushed forwards towards the sound, disappearing behind a curtain, but she returned a few seconds later.

"I think someone was in here. They might have heard us..."

"Then they might know you're not Qetesh," Cam announced. Vala nodded.

"Well, maybe that might be a good thing?" she said with a smile that spoke of the triumph of hope over experience. A loud horn sounded outside.

"Doesn't sound promising..." Cam said and rushed over to the door, while Vala tossed a number of items into her bag.

"Keepsakes," she explained in response to a disapproving glance from Cam before he vanished behind the curtain. He was back less than thirty seconds later.

"There's a crowd coming and they don't look friendly!" he hissed as he snatched his P90 from the table. "Time to blow this popsicle stand!" Vala nodded her heartfelt agreement, swinging her rucksack up onto one shoulder and her P90 onto the other.

"This way," she called to him, already heading off to one of the suite's anterooms. "I scouted routes in and out when we first got here... call it habit." She explained as they went.

'~'


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Cam insisted they approached the gate cautiously, just in case the locals had managed to get guards there ahead of them. It proved to be a wise decision: even in the pre-dawn darkness they could see that a trio of legionnaires were standing around in the clearing, blocking their getaway.

"Damn. I don't really want to have to shoot them," Cam explained out loud, hefting his P90.

"Then maybe we should use this?" Vala enquired, pulling a zat out of her rucksack. Cam looked at it. Looked at her. Looked at it again.

"I'm not even going to ask how you got hold of one of them," Cam sighed.

"Good. Because I wouldn't tell you anyway. I'll scoot around, over there. You get their attention and I'll do the rest. "

Cam shook his head. "It should be me..."

"Who's best at sneaking around and whose gun is it?" she challenged. Cam cocked his head from side to side, sucked air through his teeth and then conceded.

"OK, but be careful. Don't want you getting yourself hurt."

"Sweet," Vala grinned at him and slipped away into the dark forest.

A few minutes later, satisfied that she had had sufficient time to reach the far side of the clearing, he fired two shots into the air from his P90 to attract the guards' attention. Two of them almost instantly headed his way, whilst the third moved closer to the DHD. All of them now held their staff weapons at the ready.

A zat discharged, striking the guard by the DHD and causing him to tumble, twitching, to the ground. Cam watched, slightly horrified as Vala broke cover and began to scurry towards the DHD. The two remaining guards turned towards her.

"Kill the imposter!" One shouted, even as the other fired, causing Vala to dive for cover behind the DHD. They were closing on her quickly now. He had to act. Breaking his own cover, he let off a quick burst from his P90 to catch their attention again.

"Hey you guys! Over here!" He shouted. They turned, just a few paces from the DHD now, and one fired at him, the shot going madly wide. Vala's head bobbed up from behind the DHD. Cam's latest distraction and their closeness to her worked in her favour. Firing twice, in quick succession, she dropped both guards. Cam made a quick visual check that they had accounted for all of the guards and then ran over to Vala.

"Good work," he remarked as he came up beside her. She didn't look up from the DHD - he noted that she had her handheld computer out and was already dialling home - good job he'd given her the coordinates back in the palace. Yet, for some reason, despite them being so close to being clean away, she looked miserable. "Are you OK?"

"I'm fine." She wiped away a single tear. She paused and seemed to reconsider her statement. "You know it's always the same: All hail Qetesh one minute. Then they find out I'm not her and suddenly they want to kill me for the things she did."

He had a sudden flash of empathy for her position: She not only had her own past to deal with, she had everything that Qetesh had done whilst using her body, too. He couldn't imagine how hard that might be. It was easy to understand, though, that she might be keen to get away from a place so personally hostile to her and associated with the horrible experience of being host for Qetesh. He pulled her into a one armed hug.

The final chevron engaged and he let go of her shoulder and activated his GDO. Sympathy could wait for later. The first priority was to get them out of immediate physical danger.

"C'mon. Let's go home." He suggested, snagging her hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze before leading her up the steps towards the event horizon.

'~'

Cam walked down the ramp ahead of her, having self-consciously let go of her hand a second after they had rematerialised back on Earth. Vala's wistful, slightly hungry eyes watched him go, already feeling a sense of loss that their brief sense of connection would be cut now they were back on Earth. She bit her lip, steeled herself against the rejection she expected would soon come and followed him down the ramp towards the waiting security detail. It would probably start with him insisting that she handed over her zat gun and any loot that she had liberated during their brief sojourn on Gerena.

"So, umm, Vala?" Cam asked, turning to face her and shuffling his whole body awkwardly. Vala braced herself for what she was sure would come next. After all, Cam was nothing if not predictable and by the book. And she knew that, in his eyes, she'd broken quite a few rules in the last 24 hours.

"Yes?" She handed her P90 to a member of the gate defence team. Brace yourself. Here come the demands and the put-downs and the rejection. If she was lucky she'd just give her a stern telling off, make her hand her stuff over but let her stay on the team. But then, who was she kidding? He was probably just looking for any old excuse to kick her out of SG1, maybe the whole SGC.

"Sorry about ruining your plans for yesterday evening. How about I take you out somewhere, off base, to make up?"

"Seriously?" He had genuinely surprised her with that one. Stiff old by-the-book Colonel Cameron Mitchell was asking her out when she was pretty sure that the regulations of which he was so fond would say that he ought to be bawling her out.

"Seriously. Yeah. I reckon you could use a break. My treat, your choice."

Vala stood at the base of the ramp, surrounded by the wagging ears of the security team, staring at Mitchell with a mixture of relief and disbelief. After a couple of seconds she gave a single sharp nod.

"So, are you asking me on a date, Colonel?" She teased, finally getting a grip on the situation and pulling on the character of Vala, irrepressible flirt and thief. It was a part she had played so well and for so long it was only at times like this that she even recognised that it was just a role.

"No, not a date," he chuckled, nodding his head towards the nearest airman. She winked at Cam. He grinned back. "Honest."

"We'll see." She responded. Then with a huge smile splitting her face, she slipped her arm through his and allowed him to escort her from the gate room.

'~'

**The end**

**'~'**

So, that concludes this story and the first dip of my toe into the SG1 fandom. I hope you enjoyed it.

I do have an idea for a Sam/Vala linked fic and the germs of ideas for Jack and T'ealc/ Vala fics, so... perhaps, in time. Vinegardog and I talked about a smutty epilogue to this one, but I struggle to write smut, so we shall all have to wait and see if my muse obliges there. Of course, if one of our smut-experts feels an - urge - to write such a follow up, well... ;-)


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